Happy 20th - January 20th Celebrating the Annual Feast Day
Listen to the latest Lucretius Today Podcast! Episode 225 is now available. Cicero Argues That A Commitment To Virtue Is A Bar to Pleasure.
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posted on Facebook along with a link to Don's article:
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I was just taking a look at Don's article:
FileEpicurus’s Birthday: The 7th, 10th, or 20th of Gamelion - Mystery Solved
This paper outlines the reasons to accept that Epicurus was born on the 20th day of the month of Gamelion.DonDecember 26, 2022 at 12:07 AM QuoteConclusion
It is nearly impossible to provide a specific modern Gregorian date to an event that happened in antiquity. The variable days, chronologies, and simply the vast stretch of time make calculations like that almost sure to fail to one degree or another. Saying that Julius Caesar died on March 15 because he died on the Ides of March14 is a convenient shorthand at best. We understandably want to put historical events in a context significant to us, but history has no such obligation to accommodate our desires. However, when we have dates given in reference to the calendar actually used in ancient times, we can place that date within the context of the event's contemporary culture. Knowing an event took place on a day in Gamelion or in Thargelion or on the Idus Martiae may not mean much to us; but, to the people who lived through it, it was as readily comprehensible to them as it is to us when we say in the United States that we're celebrating the Fourth of July. We are fortunate to have as much information as we do concerning the birth of Epicurus, let alone enough information for it to be debated. That said, the ancient textual references, the volumes of scholarship, and the corrected interpretations all clearly point to Epicurus being born on the 20th day of Gamelion during the third year of the 109th Olympiad when Sosigenēs held the archonship in Athens.